Tour of Fife - day 3 (contd)......

Did I say my legs felt okay?...that was in the morning, but as the day worn on stiffness followed. It should be the same for all, but maybe more sever for us low mileage wimps!

We arrive 2 hours early and decided to park at the finish. This was the opposite direction from the previous year as there was supposed to a slight wind. There was none, but we always run the same direction as the wind.  We had plenty of time for a good warm up, so a mile walk to the finish and back was on the cards. Joanne found it difficult to walk and was away doing fartlek sessions and trying to experience race pace. I left her to it as I was off at 7.51pm and she was 7.39am. We go off 3 or 4's at a time and every 30 seconds. The promenade is marked with official markings every quarter mile and just what you need to see.

Once we returned to the car, most runners had arrived and the usual pre race chat commenced. Two familiar faces appeared, David and Alison Searil who were on a tour of Fife themselves - beaches and coffee bars! It was great to see them and have their support.

The first runners are off at 7.30pm so it was time to jog the mile again, that's a 3 mile warm up now! I kept telling myself that it's only a flat mile, anyone can run that....the only trouble is that the first thing someone will want to know is...what was your time? That's why I steer away from 5 and 10k's these days. All runners were probably more nervous about this one out of them all. Most never run a mile and it's know what pace to run at.

It's start time for Joanne and she's off with a guy from Fife and a Dundee girl who was just ahead on the first 2 races. The guy was faster and was off leaving the two girls to slog it out. Joanne couldn't quite catch her but still finished strong with 5.58.Me next. We were all lining up with people who had finished beside us in the beach race. That wasn't a good one for me, so I was hoping that I good kick ass with the two guys I was running with. We off and running and a fast steady pace. The guy from Falkland was already struggling and dropped away before we were at quarter of a mile. As we approached the halfway stage I was starting to struggle to hold the pace 3.03 and had to let him go on a few meters. It stayed like that the whole way until the final 100mtrs where I bust past him to finish 6.23.
George